The End
by Rebellious Princess
Summary: Complete Oneshot. It's the end of the final school year at Hogwarts, so what do James, Sirius and Lupin plan to do next? Written from James POV, Sirius x Lupin, James x Lily


It's a late summer afternoon, and I'm standing on a huge hill that looks over the school grounds. This is it. The end. I've passed, graduated – I am now a fully qualified wizard. The thought of this makes me feel kind of giddy in my stomach. I'm sad to leave school behind, and yet excited about the prospects that the future may bring. Perhaps I'll even finally make it a professional Animagus – erm, a legal one that is.

"Oi, Potter!" a voice shouts.

It's Sirius, my best friend at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft & Wizardry. Sirius is an Animagus, too, a huge dog – this more than shows in his shaggy long hair, and his big eyes that are always open and alert. With him is Remus, another very good friend of mine, quiet but very clever. Oh yeah, and a werewolf. Sounds more than a little odd, doesn't it? Most people would be terrified to have a werewolf as a best friend – but we don't hold it against him. And everyone knows the two are together, of course. They just won't admit it.

Both are breathless once they reach the top of the hill. Sirius slaps me playfully on the shoulder and Lupin laughs giddily – I guess that he's feeling the same as me, unless of course the two have just had one of their private broom cupboard get-togethers that they stupidly seem to think I know nothing about.

"What you doin' up here?" Sirius wants to know, and tugs at my arm. "C'mon, this is it. School's over. We're free!"

He's practically dancing about with joy, and I laugh loudly at him before giving him a shove.

"Exactly!" I say, gesturing to the view I can see from this spot. "We may never come back to Hogwarts again. I wanted to look at the school one last time. Aren't you upset, too?"

"A little," Lupin admits with a sad smile. "On the other hand, there's a lot of things I'll be glad to see the back of."

I shove my hands deep into my trouser pockets and try not to cry. _Hold those tears back, you wimp_, I tell myself. _You can't cry in front of the lads._

"Yeah," Sirius is scoffing as he scratches his head. "Like Snape."

"You're so mean to that poor boy, Padfoot," Lupin pouts, and Sirius knocks into his side with his bony shoulder.

"Wooooo! Moony loves Snape, Moony loves Snape!" Sirius jokes in a singsong voice. This makes me laugh again and I quickly grab the boys by one arm each and lead them back down the hill.

"Right, boys. Here's the plan. First, to Hogsmeade, where I shall buy you boys your first legal drink!" I claim with a wink, and they cheer.

"And then," I continue, "Onto the Black household!"

They cheer again and a feeling of euphoric excitement washes over me. This is it. The end. But with my two friends at my side, I'm not so upset about it anymore – I feel like if we wanted to, we could take on the world.

* * *

"The thing I like about you, Lupin," Sirius is slurring drunkenly as he throws a heavy arm around Remus' shoulders, "Is…well, everything."

Lupin, still rather sober, gently picks up Sirius' wrist and removes it from his personal space. He gives me a nervous glance as he does so, but I pretend I'm too drunk to have noticed anything.

"And may I assure you," Lupin begins half-jokingly, pushing his glasses back onto his nose and lifting up his tankard, "That the feeling is mutual."

The grin that spreads across Sirius' face is wide and just a little bit naughty. "A toast!" he cries, rising his glass. Lupin and I raise our tankards.

"To the future! And to best friends!" Sirius slurs, wobbling dangerously on his stool. Lupin and I cheer and clink our glasses together; I take a large gulp from mine. Lupin tries to clink his glass against Sirius', but Sirius is so drunk that he misses and sloshes half his beer across the table.

"Oops," Sirius hiccups before tumbling backwards off his stool. I burst out laughing and Lupin quickly scoops our friend up off the floor. As he ducks, I see someone across the pub. A girl. A girl with longish, curlish, reddish hair. It's Lily, Lily Evans. My heart skips a beat. Lupin draws himself back up into an upright sitting position with Sirius in tow just at the split second that Lily turns her head – _that face! That oh so pretty face!_ – in our direction. In the same instant I throw my head down, fringe in front of my eyes, and hope she hasn't seen me.

I take another gulp of my drink as Sirius tries to slip an arm around Lupin and Lupin brushes him off just as before. Then, Lupin looks at me with interest. He must have noticed the panicked expression that's quite obviously showing on my face.

"Something wrong, James?" he inquires as Sirius continually tries to grasp at his waist.

My eyes flicker up to the bar where I catch another glimpse of red curl. "Lily's over there."

"Oooo!" Sirius all but shouts, trying to focus his drunken eyes in the direction I've just looked. "Where?"

"Don't!" I hiss with urgency, but Sirius is already bellowing his greetings across the whole pub.

"Lily! 'Ey, Lily!" he cries, and if that wasn't enough, he starts waving his arms. "C'mover ere!"

Lily smiles fondly at my drunken idiot of a friend and offers what I imagine is polite apologies to her friends ("Scuse me, girls, I've just go to go over and say hello to a group of complete twats I know,") and makes her way over. My heart starts thundering against my chest and it's so deafeningly loud I'm sure she can hear it as she gracefully slides onto the stool right next to me. _Right next to me!_

"Hi boys," she smiles widely, and I feel like my legs are melting into goo. I have to look down into my lap to make sure everything's still there. It's there alright, and uh oh – something inside my trousers is stirring, trying to escape. This would happen now, of all times, wouldn't it! I carefully reach for my jacket at the side of the table and discreetly cover my lap with it.

"Hey, Lily," I greet her in what I planned to be a casual, friendly manner, but which actually stumbles its way out as a too high-pitched blurt. She either doesn't notice, or is too polite to show any reaction to my obvious nervousness. She just flashes that smile, that perfect smile, right at me – it's enough to kill a man.

"Hi, James," she says breezily just as Sirius is offering to buy her a drink. With a giggle, she politely declines, and Lupin begins a conversation. I'm pretty sure he's asking her what she'd like to do now that she's finished school, but suddenly I can't properly follow what anyone is saying. I'm a gibbering, bumbling idiot, cracking awful jokes and completely embarrassing myself. I don't know what she must think of me. Twat, probably. But she carries on smiling, flashing me secretive grins, flicking her hair and gazing at me – wait … she's not … she's not _flirting_ with me, is she!

"Excuse me, gents," she says suddenly, getting to her feet. "I'm just off to the ladies."

She collects her bag, and gives me what I think is a suggestive look – yikes, there goes my stomach again – and wanders off, a fresh breeze through a crowd of stinking, drunken men. I must be staring after her, because the next thing I see is Lupin's hand waving in front of my face. I turn to look at him and notice Sirius is passed out with his head on the table.

"What are you _doing_?" Lupin exclaims at me.

"Huh?" I blurt, sounding even dumber than I feel, if that's possible. "What d'you mean?"

Lupin doesn't try to hide the fact that he's rolling his eyes. "She's giving you all the signs! Go for it!"

I try to laugh like I don't care, but my voice comes out as a squeak. "Nah, you're winding me up."

"I'm not!" Lupin protests, gesturing with his palms open. "She can't stop looking at you, James! I think she really likes you."

"I agree," Sirius grunts, his voice muffled into the wood of the table, surprising us both. He lifts his now awake self and looks at me with bleary eyes. "Woooo! Prongs loves Lily, Prongs loves Lily!"

"Shut up!" I shush him urgently, then turn my attention back to Lupin while simultaneously trying to do something with my reckless hair. "Are you _sure_?"

"I'm sure," Lupin nods with a laugh, then gets to his feet, yanking Sirius up along with him. "Now, I'm gonna take this one home."

Sirius hiccups loudly and has to lean his weight against Lupin to keep himself upright – or, at least, that would be his excuse if anyone cared to point out how close the two boys were standing.

"Lupin, don't leave me!" I beg desperately, annoyed at how pathetic I sound. "Besides, Sirius can't apparate in that state!"

"I'm fine," Sirius slurs, but as he tries to stand alone without the help of Lupin, his footing causes him to wobble dangerously and Lupin has to catch him before he falls over again.

"Hmm, maybe James is right," Lupin admits. "You can't apparate, Sirius."

"Well then, I'll just have to hold on to you, won't I!" Sirius concludes, throwing his arms around Lupin, but at least he has an excuse this time. Lupin doesn't protest and loops an arm round Sirius' waist. He looks at me.

"You know where to apparate, right?" he checks responsibly. I nod, but I'm not ready for my friends to leave yet.

"Please, won't you stay?" I plead of the sober one, actually clasping my hands together, begging. "I'm not ready to be left alone with her! I might _die_!"

Lupin rolls his eyes again. "So, this is what it all comes down to. James Potter, he who battles boggarts. James Potter, he who risks life and limb miles up in the air just to play a sport. James Potter, who '_might die_' just because he has to talk to a girl who he's been friends with for years."

"Oh, alright!" I pout with a sigh. I take one last helpless look at Lupin. "Got any tips?"

"Just be yourself," he smiles sincerely, then pauses. "But … not too much."

"Have fun," Sirius instructs me cheekily as he tightens his grip around Lupin, and the two disappear with a pop.

My hands immediately begin to sweat and before I know it, Lily is floating back through the crowds, like an angel. She sweeps up to the table and slides back onto her stool.

"Sirius and Lupin left," I blurt out before she has a chance to ask. She tilts her head to the side and starts playing with her hair, which I find very distracting.

"Oh, that's too bad," she murmurs softly, though not even Lily can hide the glint in her eye which has suddenly appeared. My stomach is now somewhere in the region of my throat and my heart is somewhere around where my stomach used to be.

Lily turns her gorgeous eyes over towards the bar. "Looks like my friends have gone too."

"D-D you wanna … come back with me?" I stammer. The question is hard to get out. It's not the only thing that's hard at the moment.

"Looks like I'll have to," Lily replies sweetly, gazing right at me. Her face is also closer to mine than it was about half a minute ago. I gulp, and it's quite clear that I'm shaking. _Calm yourself down, James, you prick,_ I scold myself.

"Is something the matter?" Lily asks caringly, innocently, and her rosebud lips are brimming with blood and pink and delicious and I realise that I'm staring and shit I haven't said anything and I'm just sat her staring at her mouth and shaking like an idiot…

"Lily, I-" I blurt, but stop myself before I can finish the sentence. Is now the right time? Shit, what if it's not the right time? But if I don't now, when am I ever going to tell her?

"What?" Lily prompts me, teetering on the edge of her seat, leaning ever closer towards me. "What is it? James?"

I realise I haven't said anything again for about a minute and I loosen my grip on the tankard. Now is the right time. I look her directly in the eyes and it nearly kills me, but this time, I get the words out.

"Lily, I think I'm in love with you."

The words leave my mouth like a bullet - sharp, quick, blunt, not free and tumbling as I had wished; how they had sounded in my head. Oh, shit, what have I done? I'm desperate, I'm a fool, an idiot, how could I be so stupid as to think that someone like Lily would –

"Oh, James!" she breathes in … is that surprise? Happiness? Pity? I can't tell, but she's practically thrown herself onto my lap and has thrust her arms around my shoulders, hugging me, embracing me. I'm still shaking like a leaf and the sweat is almost pouring from my hands as I awkwardly place them onto her back and they stick to her robes. I'm embarrassed, but she doesn't flinch or squirm. She's still gripping onto my back, her head buried into my chest. Eventually, when she seems to have collected herself, she peers up at me.

"James, I feel the same way," she whispers, and I swear I could fall off my stool, and not as an effect from the alcohol. My stomach, however, feels weak and sickly. Now that technically _could_ be the alcohol, but I don't know. I don't care. Lily Evans just said she loves me. Lily! Lily Evans, straight-A pupil, angelic beauty, charmingly intelligent, loves me, _me_, James Potter, layabout, bully, professional twat. _Lily and James forever!_

"H-How long?" I ask, because it's the only thing I can think of to say.

"Since Christmas," she whispers back, and I feel her body snuggling into mine. _Since Christmas!_ My mind explodes. That long, and I never knew!

"Why didn't you tell me?" I inquire of her, baffled.

"Why didn't you tell _me_?" she copies playfully, tapping at my chest. I grin sheepishly as the bell at the bar rings, signalling last orders.

"So, should we get going?" she asks slightly mischievously, and there's a twinkle in her eye.

"Sure," I manage to nod numbly, and as I get up, my knees still feel week. I hope I can apparate in this state, and then I realise that I'll have to.

"You haven't been to Sirius' house, have you?" I check with Lily, though I'm fairly sure she hasn't. She shakes her head as she collects up her things from the table.

"Guess I'll have to hold onto you," she suggests softly, and before I can say anything, her arms are wrapped tightly the whole way around my skinny waist. A grin spreads across my face and the last thing I can remember before that echoing 'pop' as I apparate across the country to get to Black's house, is Lily Evans gazing up into my eyes and whispering.

"_James Potter, I love you."_


End file.
